On My Way To Heaven

I have always loved to write here and there. There are many journals half way through, and lots of notebooks with drawings and colors in my drawers.

I love journaling, and it has been a great blessing in my life this past year that I have been – finally- consistent about it. I read about how the Puritans, and great thinkers of old kept notebooks filled with their thoughts, prayers, plans, cooking recipes and lists, as well as drawings.

Carrying a little one in my purse has been delightful. I keep my memory Bible verses there, my thoughts, my quick to-do lists, phone numbers, the words of some hymns, drawings from my children and even from my nephews.

At the same time I stumbled with this book “Journaling as a Spiritual Practice” by Helen Cepero...and I found that even something that could be so simple and beautiful as journailng, can lead us astray if we are not grounded in the Scriptures.

I will write here some thoughts about this book, and why I believe it has teachings that are opposed to the Scripture itself (even when the author calls herself Christian). I have made so many notes in the book, that I will just cite some of her words and then tell you why I don’t agree.

The greatest danger I see throughout all the book is the emphasis that the author makes on a self-centeredness meditation, for example, she talks about how to deal with inner voices, such as the Censor and the Critic (p.38-41).

On Page 37, she says, “I don’t wonder about which doctrine of atonement might be correct; I link my hand with the hand of the crucified Christ and look into the face of love” this is a dangerous statement, because we can’t come to Christ if we don’t understand why  and how He has saved us. Doctrine matters, even when we face love; otherwise, we  will soon be facing the world’s doctrine of tolerance, “It does not matter what you believe about Christ, just  come to Him”

She encourages the use of journaling as a means to find ourselves, to look inside of us, to understand ourself, and then she says,

“Part of what compels us to write in a journal is our search for the self that we might have lost or misplaced by following someone else’s advice or just getting through life demands”

The Bible never teaches us about mounting a big quest for our self, instead urges us to seek for God’s kingdom, to lose our lives for His sake.

^“And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”                Matthew 10:38-40

The only way that the Bible teaches us to look into ourselves, is this:

“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.”    2 Corinthians 13:4-6

What about dialoguing with God through journaling? ….

“Write your name in your journal, followed by a colon. Then give God an unedited version of how is with you right now. Now write “God” or “Jesus” or “Holy Spirit” followed by a colon. Set down your pen or rest your fingers on the keyboard and listen for a response. If you hear nothing or if this seems crazy to you, put your own name again after the blank space and and write, “This feels crazy” or “I don’t hear anything”, But don’t fill in the blank space next to God’s name until you feel led to do so. Sometimes this will open a conversation that will continue later…..

..(R)emaining still enough to listen can give God space to say something surprising or even new”

p. 106- 107

What a danger! The moment we start trusting our inner voice, our heart; the moment we expect a new word from God we are in great danger. The only way we can be sure of God’s voice to us is through the Holy Scriptures. Our hearts are deceitful, Jeremiah tells us.

“The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?”

But why do I write this short book review? Because, I really want to let you know that when you hear me talking about journaling, I am not talking about a sublime experience. where I find myself…

I am not looking for myself through journaling. I can only know myself through the Scriptures, and they said that I am a sinner in need of grace, that I can’t trust myself, and that I must die to myself…

I journal with a different purpose, I will tell you about it… maybe tomorrow.

But still, journaling is a joy when framed in the context of the Word; so if you journal…may you have a day full of beautiful entries!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19, 2010 at 8:35 AM and is filed under My Thoughts with tags Books, Journaling, womMEn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.